So I wanted to just smack the guy…

M

…No — not the kid in the picture. I wanted to smack my “brother” photographer.

I like this picture, but it was a challenge. It was quite dark. I was shooting a Leica M6 with a 15mm lens at a very slow shutter speed — ISO 800 film. This installation was “The Weather Project”, by Olafur Eliasson, in the “Turbine Hall” of London’s Tate Modern Museum from 16 October 2003 until 21 March 2004. I made several shots, and all the scans take a lot of work. The best rendering of this image was something I did in a printing class — printing as in ink on paper — but that’s another topic.

I was on the floor, discretely using a monopod and contorting myself as I tried to get the right perspective. Then this dude comes over near me, sets up his tripod, and the next thing you know the docent is telling us both that we “can’t do that”. Grrrr. So I’m going to be doing contortions — combined with slow shutter speeds, that’s asking for problems.

I’m sorry, but do people really think you can plop a tripod down in any museum without permission? Monopods, on the other hand, seem to be OK in many places. The Victoria and Albert had no problem. Most of the Smithsonian museums allow monopods. And you should always ask when you visit a museum for the first time.

So that’s why I wanted to smack the guy.

The little boy and the woman, on the other hand, hopefully had a wonderful day. It sure looked like it from where I was crouching.